The 2021 Donegal Senior Football Championship was the 99th official edition of

Donegal GAA The Donegal County Board () or Donegal GAA is one of 32 county boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Ireland, and is responsible for the administration of Gaelic games in County Donegal. The County Board is responsible for prepari ...

's premier

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

tournament for senior graded clubs in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

. 16 teams competed, with the winner representing Donegal in the

Ulster Senior Club Football Championship The Ulster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament organised by Ulster GAA. It is played between the Senior championship winners from each of the nine counties of Ulster. The competition was first held in 1968 an ...

. Naomh Conaill was defending champion after defeating Cill Chartha in a penalty competition held after

extra-time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

of the 2020 final. Naomh Conaill advanced to the 2021 final, but lost to St Eunan's.

Team changes

The following teams changed division since the 2020 championship season.

To S.F.C.

Promoted from 2020 Donegal I.F.C. * Aodh Ruadh - (I.F.C. Champions)

From S.F.C.

Relegated to 2021 Donegal I.F.C. * ?

League stage

The competition began with a league stage. The draw for the first two rounds was held in June 2021, with the identity of the 2020 Championship winner still unknown, a first such event in the competition's history.

Table

Fixtures

;Round 1 ;Round 2 ;Round 3 The Round 3 draw was made on 26 September, giving the following fixtures: Ard an Rátha v Kilcar, Seán MacCumhaills v Réalt na Mara, Naomh Conaill v Termon, St Naul's v Glenswilly, Gaoth Dobhair v Glenfin, Na Cealla Beaga v Milford, St Eunan's v Aodh Ruadh and Four Masters v St Michael's. * Ard an Rátha v Kilca
Report
* Seán MacCumhaills v Réalt na Mar
Report
* Naomh Conaill v Termo

* St Naul's v Glenswilly * Gaoth Dobhair v Glenfi
Report
* Na Cealla Beaga v Milfor
Report
* St Eunan's v Aodh Ruadh * Four Masters v St Michael's ;Round 4 The Round 4 draw was made in early October, giving the following fixtures: Kilcar v Gaoth Dobhair, Aodh Ruadh v Ard an Rátha, Réalt na Mara v St Eunan's, Termon v Seán MacCumhaills, Glenswilly v Naomh Conaill, St Michael's v Na Cealla Beaga, Glenfin v Four Masters and Milford v St Naul's. Three clubs had by then advanced to the knockout stages – Gaoth Dobhair, Kilcar and Naomh Conaill. Going into Round 4, played on the weekend of October 9, St Eunan's, Glenswilly, St Naul's, St Michael's and Aodh Ruadh sat in the remaining five places. * St Michael's 3–10 — 1–07 Na Cealla Beaga * Termon 1–12 — 1–18 Seán MacCumhaillsReport
* Milford 0–09 — 2–16 St Naul's * Réalt na Mara 1–07 — 0–14 St Eunan's * Glenswilly 0–15 — 1–15 Naomh Conaill * Aodh Ruadh 1–16 — 2–07 Ard an Rátha
* Glenfin 0–20 — 0–06 Four MastersReport
* Kilcar v Gaoth Dobhair ?

Knock-out stage

Quarter-finals

Gaoth Dobhair and Naomh Conaill, the last two clubs to win the competition, were paired with each other in the quarter-final draw. Seán MacCumhaills and Kilcar met in the other quarter-final on that side of the draw. On the other side of the draw St Eunan's and St Naul's played each other in one quarter-final, while St Michael's and Aodh Ruadh played each other in the other quarter-final.

Semi-finals

The semi-final meeting of Kilcar and Naomh Conaill was shown live to a national audience on

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

. Naomh Conaill won, after a late

Patrick McBrearty Patrick McBrearty (born 5 August 1993) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for CLG Chill Chartha, Cill Chartha and the Donegal county football team, Donegal county team, which he has captained since 2023. He is usually selected in the full ...

goal that would have brought the sides level, was ruled out.

Final

It was Naomh Conaill's fifth consecutive appearance in the final. The game was televised live on

. A minute's silence was held before the game in memory of Martin Griffin, whose sudden death occurred the previous day. St Eunan's won.

Relegation play-offs

Eight clubs (Glenfin, Glenswilly, Réalt na Mara, Ard an Rátha, Milford, Na Cealla Beaga, Termon and Four Masters) entered the draw for the

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

play-offs once the quarter-final line-up was confirmed.

Ulster Senior Club Football Championship

St Eunan's advanced to the 2021 Ulster Senior Club Football Championship. Watty Graham's knocked St Eunan's out of that competition with an injury time point from Danny Tallon winning the game at

O'Donnell Park O' Donnell Park () is a GAA stadium in County Donegal, Ireland. The home ground of the St Eunan's club, it is situated between the Letterkenny Regional Sports and Leisure Complex and Ballymacool Park on the outskirts of the town. The Donegal c ...

, despite St Eunan's scoring the only goal and leading for much of the game and Shaun Patton saving a penalty.

Gradam Shéamuis Mhic Géidigh

Caolan Ward was named as the recipient of the annual Gradam Shéamuis Mhic Géidigh.

Television rights

The following matches were broadcast live on national television, unless otherwise indicated:

Statistics

Top scorers

;Top scorer overall

References

External links

"Club by club guide to the Donegal Senior Football Championship"
— Peter Campbell, Tom Comack and Gerry McLaughlin profile the 16 clubs who will go in search of the Dr Maguire
"Team of the Championship"
— ''

Donegal News The ''Donegal News'' (also known as ''Derry People/Donegal News'' and formerly ''Derry People'') is a twice-weekly local newspaper in the northwest of the island of Ireland, first published in 1902. Originally covering Derry, Northern Ireland, i ...

'' {{Donegal Senior Football Champions 2021

Donegal Senior Football Championship The Donegal Senior Football Championship (abbreviated as Donegal SFC) is an annual football competition organised by Donegal GAA and contested by the highest-level clubs, to determine the best team in County Donegal. Since 2016, it has been know ...

Donegal SFC Donegal Senior Football Championship